Hath No Fury Like Katie Vincent and Elyse Price in Pickings

NEO-NOIR MEETS SPAGHETTI WESTERN WHEN AN ASS-KICKING SOUTHERN MOM DOLES OUT BLOODY VENGEANCE ON A VICIOUS MOBSTER

The fatalistic fury of neo-noir meets the sudden savagery of the spaghetti western in PICKINGS, a new kind of genre cocktail that puts an intoxicating spin on the ever-popular gangster movie. Directed, written, edited, shot and produced by lauded New York-based filmmaker Usher Morgan, PICKINGS picks up where other crime dramas end, serving up a one-of-a-kind female leading character, Jo Lee-Haywood, a lady who’s as loving, caring and dedicated as she is cunning , dangerous and vengeful.

In PICKINGS, Jo Lee-Haywood (Elyse Price) is a devoted single mother and sister who divides her time between her family and Pickings, the local Michigan tavern that she owns. Easy, right? WRONG! When a local mob boss (Emil Ferzola) and his goons try to muscle in and wet their beaks off Jo’s hard work, it’s up to Jo to embrace her inner demons and tap into her mysterious and violent past to protect her family and livelihood. It doesn’t take too long for the haunted, hardboiled Jo and her pistol-packing posse to lock and load and take on the mob the only way they know how.

PICKINGS is filled with the classic film noir elements—grim voiceovers, evocative flashbacks, a moody score and an unforgettable femme fatale—combined with the dazzling neon-dipped photography, startling violence and graphic novel-styled visuals of modern cinema. It immediately evokes the films of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, even as it stands on its own as an exciting new exercise stylized cinematic sound and vision.

Filmmaker Usher Morgan’s previous films include the short Good Kids, Fine Dining and the 2015 comedy Prego, which won the Best Comedy Short Award at the 2015 Manhattan Film Festival, amongst other awards, before amassing a cult following online and garnering over 950,000 views on YouTube since its release. Morgan is also the writer, director, and producer behind the upcoming horror short,Trapped Inside, which will enter the festival circuit in Halloween. PICKINGS, Morgan’s first feature, was filmed in and around New York City in 2016 on a budget of approximately $350,000.

Following its theatrical release and rollout to festivals around the country, where it has already won the Best Film Award at the 2018 Midwest Weirdfest and Best Feature Film and Best Director prizes at the Sunny Side Up Film Festival and the Greenpoint Film Festival, PICKINGS will be released on VOD (iTunes) for the first time on August 3, 2018 followed by Blu-ray and DVD release on August 10, 2018 (DVD). The Blu-ray, which includes deleted scenes,a DVD commentary, some humorous short clips and a look into the making of the film, among its bonus features, will carry the suggested retail price of $23.99